Newcastle Move In For Spanish Left Winger

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

7:57pm Thursday, May 29th, 2014

Commented 93 times

Newcastle are said to be interested in Spanish winger Aleix Vidal, who has been at Almeria for three seasons, and as far as we can tell, this is the first time we have ever been linked with the 5′ 9″ tall left winger.

24 year-old Aleix Vidal – Almeria left-winger Vidal joined Almeria from Mallorca three years ago, and he has played a total of 139 games for them with 19 goals and 14 assists, and last season he appeared 42 times with 7 goals and 5 assists.

The 24 year-old seems to have attracted huge interest in England with Everton, West Ham and Aston Villa all said to be interested in the player, in addition to the Magpies.

The player has been in very good form this season, which explains the interest from English Premier league clubs, and he cans both score goals and make goals, and he will cost money, because his contract at Almeria still has another three years to run.

But according to reports in Spain, Everton are the current favorites to get the player, with their top Spanish manager Roberto Martinez keen to sign his countryman for The Toffees.

Everton may be first in with a bid of around £6M, and no doubt Almeria are hoping there will be a bidding war for their left winger, between the four English clubs interested.

This is the type of player we would expect Newcastle to try to get this summer, fairly unknown but a very decent player who was born in Valls in north-east Spain in Catalonia, but we cannot see the Tyneside club standing much of a chance, if the news is true that Martinez is keen on taking the player to Goodison Park.

I am getting Sick of hearing all our players are on the transfer list apart from coloccini and the 2 Taylors… and the rest want out … next season we will have a load of youngsters and WE are certainties for relegation… If we thought this season was bad Jezzz wait until the new season as we are becoming a Joke who the hell is going to want to come here … Even Shola didn’t want to stay for 12 months…

You can see whats going to happen..We get rid of all the players that’s listed and then through incompetence and penny pinching. ………….Jack!. Nada!.Zilch! Nothing over the line. Not even taking any notice of any of the rumours .Every seasons the same.Groundhog day…

There is a small section in the museum at Fortaleza’s Estádio de Futebol Castelão where pictures of Tyneside enjoy surprising prominence. Mirandinha, the first Brazilian to play in English football after moving to Newcastle United for more than £500,000 in 1987, is an icon in the city that will host six World Cup matches this summer, but it is the 54-year-old’s time in the north-east that evokes some of his fondest memories.

“I still think about Newcastle,” reflects Mirandinha, who speaks about England with wistful nostalgia. “I love Newcastle and was so happy there. English football for me was very, very important because I was the first Brazilian to play there. The first three months were horrible because I had never been in this situation before, I’d never played in snow. It was difficult but after a while I had a chance to play well.”

Mirandinha made his debut for Newcastle in a 1-1 draw at Norwich City, a game that Paul Gascoigne started in midfield. His arrival was much trumpeted and, cleared to play only two hours before kick-off, he gave a rare glimpse of a player from an exotic country whose stars had previously only been viewed on TV screens. The Guardian match report of the game, published on 2 September 1987, captured the expectation among the crowd at Carrow Road. Stephen Bierley wrote: “After what seemed an interminable wait, the man finally arrived. Excitement was intense, and speculation. Would he score? Would he get sent off? – the night was clear, and a little sultry – Rio in winter. Norwich – were in no mood to let the evening become a Brazilian carnival, although perhaps their yellow shirts made Mirandinha feel just a little bit at home. Fortunately they did not confuse him. ‘Mirandinha, Mirandinha’ chanted the Geordie choir jubilantly.”

Newcastle’s boy from Brazil could not mark his debut with a goal during a game in which he was often foiled by Steve Bruce in the heart of Norwich’s defence, but he was given a raucous reception by the travelling fans. Willie McFaul, Newcastle’s manager at the time, said: “He’s come here, he’s been thrown in at the last moment and he excites me.”

There is another moment from that day that sticks out in Mirandinha’s mind. “I remember my first game when we played against Norwich City,” he says. “Inside the bus they brought us fish and chips and chicken and chips for us to eat after the game. The bus started to leave and Gazza told me to go over to Mr Willy and tell him: ‘Mr Willy I am fucking starving.’ I didn’t know what it meant so I went to Mr Willy and said ‘boss I am fucking starving I need to eat some food’. All the boys started to laugh with me. That was the first funny story but there were so many.”

Mirandinha stayed with Newcastle for two seasons before moving back to Palmeiras in Brazil, never becoming a prolific player for the club but making a significant impression nonetheless.

He was also a local celebrity in Newcastle during the late 1980s. The black-and-white photos in Fortaleza’s stadium appear as if from a bygone era. Mirandinha and Gascoigne are shown next to a white van surrounded by pupils from Castle Dene school, but the one that catches the eye is of the Brazilian riding a sleigh down Northumberland Street to switch on the Christmas lights. “All the Brazilian players, when we started to play at a high level, were thinking about playing in Europe,” he says. “It was normal and for me it was fantastic. I played for big clubs in Brazil but when I had the chance to go to Europe it was fantastic.

“I still have contact with Lee Clark and Paul Gascoigne. I speak with Paul, not regularly because he has a few problems sometimes. But he was fantastic and gave me a lot of support when I was there. I’m so glad that I was there with these people, it was very important for my career to play in England.

“Gazza, he’s a crazy boy. Then he was only 19-years-old so you can imagine how Gazza was. He was a fantastic guy for me, we were good together and I was happy there with him and other players like Darren Jackson from Scotland. I was very settled there and happy in Newcastle.”

Mirandinha now manages the impressive Castelão stadium, which will host Brazil versus Mexico among other games at the World Cup. He fears for the European players who have to play in the equatorial climate of Manaus – “when I went there it was difficult to breathe” – but is optimistic of the Seleção’s chances in the tournament.

“We have a good chance to be in the final because we are here, with our people, the Brazilian people will be together with the national team,” says Mirandinha. “We have now a very good coach, [Luiz Felipe] Scolari is the best coach for Brazil in this moment and we have top, top players in Europe. They will be important because a lot of players in the national team play in Europe and they know how everyone plays, they have a lot of information for Scolari. Brazil have a great chance to be in the final.”

Mirandinha’s time in Newcastle ended when Jim Smith took over from McFaul and became frustrated with “Wor Mira”, who struggled with an achilles injury. However, England’s first Brazilian import paved the way for many to follow.

Wandering – nothing new mate – just look at the last 3 or 4 windows. Not a single player that needed a replacement was recruited in the following window. We are a shambles of a club – I can seriously see us fighting off relegation next season. In which case expect signings in January, not this summer!!

The fat man will be laughing all the way to the bank man! You heard it here first! Ha ha. I used to Love transfer windows. Now I look to transfer goings on at big clubs like swansea and southampton! How the times have changed eh

That last note on pards saying it could be a difficult window – if Ashley doesn’t splash some cash this window I will personally drive to his mansion with my buddy Tyrell who loves to make men feel as emasculinised as possible.

Can’t remember who it was who mentioned the potential availability of Remie Garde but at the time I didn’t think he would wan to know. Read this morning that he’s favourite to become the next brighton manager. Depressing to think that brighton and hove albion could have a manager of that pedigree.

toonarmydownsouth It was just on top on my head mate. Sure it’s not guaranteed within one window but that was never my point. As long as we reinvest the crazy money we get in we will be better off once we replace him with the two or more players that the crazy money will buy us.

And to your second post. How many would you keep if I added played well enough? and how many can you replace with freebies if you have to? Does it matter if you have Shola coming on or Armstrong if they doesn’t change the game?

I wrote – technically – we only need to replace Remy and Cabaye as the bare minimum to have starting eleven that won’t collapse and have us relegated and that’s even if Debuchy and Krul left.

We would of course be more vulnerable to long-term injuries if we let most of our bench leave but not as vulnerable as having a squad of underachievers.

Pardew saying we are going to have, or might have, a difficult time in the transfer window this summer ..set’s us all up for a fail/fall..there is no optimism at our club ..none at all.. no cups to play for or wont, as stated , what a statement to make ! no league ambition ..what have we become ?

Ashley is awash with money, the Club is awash with money ..chrissakes how do we get rid of this user ?

If the owner has no ambition For Newcastle United ..what is he doing here .

Sazzer How the hell will we better off if the money isn’t immediately re invested? How the f**k is this squad that capitulated in the second half if the season going to be good enough if we only bring in 2- 3 players and don’t replace a player like Debuchy immediately?

And complete don’t get the second part of your post Shola played a big role at the start of the season and had a big purple patch as deep forward So ship em out and don’t replace them if they haven’t played well enough it shouldn’t matter? Yeah let’s not worry about squad depth or nout silly like competition for places as long as we can just about knock out a starting 11 and a bench we should be rosey

Good shout, very Obertan esque but better finisher. Personally, I don’t think that type of player fits into the English game that well. As you’ll notice, mostly all of the footage was on the break with lots of space. We don’t tend to play with that much space here and I think he’d struggle, as Obertan has.

Sazzer Are we also supposed to ignore the negative impact on the squad it would have selling one of our top players for the second window in a row and not replacing them? That coupled with the mission statement of we don’t want to compete for anything next season I’m sure the lads will be fired right up for next season! Looking forward to seeing RTaylor/Anita at RB I guess if you don’t think there’s a rush to replace outgoing players, as long as it’s for big money of course!

MA probably likes the fact we cant compete with the likes of the great unwashed. If people think we are going to sign any of our first choice players you are deluded.We will sign people last minute last chance bargain bin rubbish.

Its what MA thinks he does best,sadly SD isnt an example he should think he can emulate.

In the last 7 years the only thing MA has proved is he knows nothing about running a football club. Im sure he would like it to be diffrent but the fact is he is an utterly rubbish owner who either dont care or is an utter idiot. His actions show its idiot imho.

Left to his own devices his choices have been comical.

Looking at his past he is now entering his spiteful stage where he just shits on everything to make some kind of childish point. Sadly in his world he is cutting off his nose so to speak to make up for his lack of intelligence.

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health update

My latest bone scans and CAT scans were completed on Wednesday of this week and yesterday I met with my oncologist Dr. Dhruva to look over the results.

The stage four cancer remains stabilized and has not spread any further over the last six months.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in early 2017 after being in remission for six years.

The cancer metastasized through the bones to different parts of the body and the treatment I am undergoing is hormone treatment.

There is no cure for stage 4 cancer but there are treatments (like Hormone treatment) that attempt to prolong life.

I am upbeat with the results and remain in awe of the doctors and nurses at the Rex Cancer Center here in Raleigh.

It's truly humbling to see how inspiring they are with their patients.

Ed Harrison

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